How To Sync Your iTunes Library to Mutliple Computers With Dropbox

It used to be that being asked to bring some tunes to your buddy's New Years Eve party meant sticking a few CDs and cassettes into a bag before heading out the door. Nowadays, with so many people turning to the internet to download their music, you might consider burning a few discs to take to the party with you (lame), or even bringing along an iPod or iPad loaded up with your whole collection. While both will get the job done, neither are perfect solutions. For starters, Burning CDs means having to keep blank physical discs on hand, and unless you plan on bringing a car load of discs, the selection of music you'll be able to bring with you is going to be pretty limited. As for bringing an iOS device to a party? Well, we'd like to take this time to remind you that Apple's warranty programs don't cover liquid damages. Fortunately, there's a quick, easy--and most importantly, free--method for bringing a good chunk of your iTunes library with you. It involves our good friends at Dropbox, and just a few minutes of your time.

Step One: Get Dropbox

You're going to need some way to transport your music to you're pal's party. For this exercise, those tunes will be finding their way from Point A to Point B via one of our favorite cloud storage and syncing solutions, Dropbox. If you haven't already snagged a free Dropbox account, this is the time to do so. You can secure 2 GB of Dropbox storage for absolutely free. If you're interested in more space, you can snag a plan for 50 GB or 100 GB at a cost of $9.99 or $19.99 per month respectively.

Step Two: Choose Your Music

How you proceed with step two will very much depend on how large your iTunes library is, and how much storage space your Dropbox plan allows for. If your iTunes library is small enough to comfortably fit into your Dropbox account, locate the file folder containing your iTunes library, and drag it into your Mac's Dropbox folder. Once you've done so, Dropbox will begin to sync your music library to the cloud.

If your music collection is as massive as a few of the ones around the Mac|Life office are, you're going to have to be a bit more selective about what you opt to sync. Under these circumstances, we suggest copy all of the files you want into a sub folder nestled away inside of your Dropbox folder called--you guessed it--iTunes. Once you've picked out the perfect collection of music, leave your computer running so that the audio files can be uploaded to Dropbox's servers. Be sure to allow lots of time for the upload. Rome wasn't built in a day, and your Dropbox won't finish syncing in the time it takes to eat a sandwich.

Step Three: Set Up Dropbox On a Second Computer

Once your music has uploaded to the cloud, it'll be time to sort out how to get it out of that cloud and into the ears of those New Years Eve party goers. Call up that friend of yours that was so keen on you bringing over your music collection for the party and explain how you've arranged for your music collection to get to the party. Let her know that if she'll need to install Dropbox on her computer as well in order to make the file transfer as easy as possible. If your party's host is the sort of person that takes the time to get the music for their soiree just right, we're betting that she'll be the sort that won't mind installing some free software to ensure her guests can dance the night away.

Once the software is installed, enter your Dropbox account credentials. Your music, along with any other files you have stashed in your Dropbox folder, will begin to download. With that being the case, you might want to remember to remove any files of an embarrassing or sensitive nature from your Dropbox account before initiating the transfer. Some things just aren't meant to be shared.

Step Four: Tell iTunes What's What

Once the file's have been downloaded to your friend's computer, fire up iTunes. Now, turn your attention to the iTunes menu. Under Preferences, click Advanced. Look for a button titled Change and click that too--a box will open and prompt you to select the new location for iTunes to draw its library from. Use the selection box to hunt down your Dropbox forlder and the iTunes library that's lurking inside of it. Alternately, you can also choose to open iTunes and simply drag the files from your Dropbox account into the music player's interface. This will automatically add the files to the host computer's existing library.

In either case, any music that you purchased via the iTunes Music Store won't be playable without providing the host computer permission to do so. to give the host that permission, look to the iTunes options in your menu bar once again. Under Store, click on Authorize This Computer. Enter your credentials. Boom: provided you haven't already authorized five other machines to rock your tunes already, you'll be in business.

Step Five: Enjoy

With your music set to play, its time to get down with your bad self. Enjoy the party, enjoy the music, and remember to have an awesome New Years Eve!